I was wondering if returning to a 1stHalf/2ndHalf thing would perhaps fix this, and add a little juice to the July to October period.
For example...
The 1st Half winner of a Division would play the 2nd Half winner to determine the division champ...should a team win both the 1st and 2nd half, they would automatically advance.
This fails to work with 3 divisions unless a wildcard is involved...this means going back to two divisions or making a wildcard...for the latter, I think you could have, say, the team with the best overall record that did not advance to the 2nd round...
After the All-Star Break, every team would, in a sense, be back in it...this would allow teams that had a bad first half really make a push in the second, instead of being predestined for the formality of playing out the schedule for 5 months.
I am going to try to take a look at some 1st half v. 2nd half numbers from the past few years and see what might have shown up...there may be nothing of note, but lots of awful or young or hurt first half teams go nuts in the 2nd half...imagine what it would do to a team like Pittsburgh with some of its talent, or Florida...managing the team would be more crucial, as well...
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